Dods to acquire Biteback Media Limited and Holyrood Communications Limited

imagesDods Group is to acquire Biteback Media Limited, (excluding its publishing subsidiary), and Holyrood Communications Limited from Political Holdings Limited.

The consideration payable for Biteback is £795,000 in cash. The Holyrood acquisition is to be settled by £416,806 in cash plus a further potential payment of £250,000 if certain gross profit targets are met. Biteback Media Limited publishes Total Politics, a monthly political magazine, and organises associated events. Biteback generated an EBITDA loss of £0.35 million for year to 31 December 2011 on revenues of £0.47 million. Based on the management accounts for the ten-month period to 31 October 2012 Biteback generated revenues of £0.7 million, an EBITDA loss of £0.1 million and had net assets of £0.2 million after an adjustment for intercompany loans. Holyrood is a publishing and events business based in Edinburgh, with particular focus on Scottish politics and current affairs. The acquisition of Holyrood will enable Dods to benefit from the increase in political activity in Scotland over the next two years. In the year ended 31 March 2012 Holyrood achieved revenues of £1.9 million and generated EBITDA of £0.1m.

UK, London

Related articles:

Nasdaq OMX Group to acquire the investor relations, public relations, and multimedia solutions units of Thomson Reuters Corp for $390 million

The NASDAQ OMX Group is to acquire the Investor Relations, Public Relations and Multimedia Solutions businesses of Thomson Reuters for $390 million in cash. The businesses provide insight, analytics and communications solutions to more than 7,000 clients worldwide. They will be integrated into NASDAQ OMX Corporate Solutions.

“In one acquisition, we accelerate and achieve our Corporate Solutions long-term objectives, while maintaining our balanced strategy of delivering value to shareholders,” said Bob Greifeld, Chief Executive Officer, NASDAQ OMX.

“We believe that NASDAQ OMX is the ideal fit for our Investor Relations, Public Relations and Multimedia Solutions businesses,” said Michael Cotter, Global Managing Director of Corporate Services, Thomson Reuters.

The deal is expected to close in the first half of 2013

USA, New York, NY

Related articles:

Elsevier Announces its Acquisition of the Journal of Choice Modelling

elsevierElsevier has acquired the Journal of Choice Modelling (JOCM). Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

JOCM was founded in 2008 by its editors, Stephane Hess and John Rose, who will remain in charge after the transfer to Elsevier.

The Journal of Choice Modelling publishes theoretical and applied papers in the field of choice modelling. The journal covers topics such as transport and marketing where the analysis of choice behaviour is a topic of interest. While it mainly focuses on the use of discrete choice models, other methods and survey design are also discussed.

Chris Pringle , Executive Publisher at Elsevier said, “Since the Journal of Choice Modelling‘s interests extend from transport into marketing, finance, environmental economics and beyond, its focus on choice modelling nicely complements our existing journals in both economics and transport, in a growth area which we wanted to represent more strongly in our list. JOCM and its editors have a track record of demonstrated success, and we are very happy to have the opportunity to add such a high quality journal to the Elsevier family.”

UK, Oxford & UK, Leeds

Related articles

TechTarget acquires LeMagIT

TechTarget_Logo-TaglineTechTarget has acquired the websites and product offerings of LeMagIT, a strategic partner with TechTarget since 2010.

Since its launch in 2008, LeMagIT’s network of sites has offered French-language news and analysis for IT decision makers on core enterprise IT topics such as cloud computing, virtualization, security, and storage and attracts over 250,000 visits per month. The existing management and editorial team of LeMagIT, led by Chairman Eric Ochs, and Founder and Chief Operating Officer David Castaneira, will be remaining with the company and working with TechTarget to continue to grow its French business. Ochs was formerly CEO at IDG France, and Castaneira, formerly the Online Director at IDG France.

LeMagIT’s network includes LeMagIT.fr, StratégiesCloud.fr, as well as an IT white paper and webcast library, LesSourcesIT.fr.

“Our EMEA-based business continues to see very strong growth, and this acquisition is a further investment in our capabilities there,” said Greg Strakosch, CEO, TechTarget. “It is also a continuation of our strategy of having direct operations in the major markets across the world, giving our advertisers the ability to run integrated campaigns across multiple geographies.”

USA, Newton, MA & France, Paris

Decision Resources Group Acquires Abacus International

decision-resources-printDecision Resources Group, a subsidiary of Piramal Enterprises Ltd. announced on 4th December its acquisition of Abacus International, a UK based provider of evidence-based global market access solutions for many healthcare companies worldwide. Abacus will become part of the Market Access Business Unit at Decision Resources Group which currently includes the brands: Fingertip Formulary, HealthLeaders-InterStudy, PharmaStrat and Pinsonault. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Founded in 1995, Abacus has experience “across a wide range of disease areas,” providing services to its healthcare (many of which pharmaceutical) clients at all stages of their product life cycles including analysis of clinical evidence, development of technical health economic models and pricing input amongst others. With over 55 staff, Abacus is one of the largest independent health economic consultancies in Europe. The firm also offers software solutions in the form of in-house produced web and mobile applications.

Abacus states on its website that its current management team will remain in place and that it will “continue to deliver its services as normal.” The firm will also remain headquartered in Bicester, UK.

Peter Hoenigsberg, CEO of Decision Resources Group said “Abacus is an important acquisition in Decision Resources Group’s overall strategy to expand our market access capabilities and offer our clients the most innovative, high-value advisory solutions.” He continued “It also serves to boost our position in Europe as an important resource for healthcare firms worldwide.” The firm’s press release for the acquisition states that  “The acquisition is part of Decision Resources Group’s overall strategy to acquire and/or build leading brands that can leverage each other’s thought leadership to create meaningful products and services for the healthcare industry.” View the press release here.

US, Massachusetts & UK, Bicester

Related articles:

Reed MIDEM acquires LeWeb

midemLogoReed MIDEM, part of Reed Exhibitions and an organiser of international tradeshows and conferences, has acquired LeWeb, an internet conference and networking events business.

Launched in Paris in 2004 by Loic and Geraldine Le Meur , LeWeb brings together the key players in the international internet ecosystem including entrepreneurs and visionaries, investors and venture capitalists, technology businesses, large companies, digital marketers and journalists. In addition to its annual Paris gathering, LeWeb launched a London event in June 2012.

Commenting on the acquisition, Reed MIDEM Chief Executive Officer Paul Zilk said, “LeWeb fits very well with Reed MIDEM. We share the same ambition for developing premium international events where participants network and build relationships, do business, launch new products and discover the latest innovations.

France, Paris

Related articles:

Publicis Groupe acquires UK digital agency Outside Line

PublicisPublicis Groupe has acquired British digital agency Outside Line, a specialist in social and experiential media. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Founded in 2000 and based in London, Outside Line has become one of the top 5 independent social agencies in the UK according to New Media Age (Top 100 agencies report). The skill-set of the agency’s 68-strong team ranges from digital design and development to content creation, customer relations management and experience-driven social media marketing. Outside Line’s client list includes Andy Murray , Arla Foods (Cravendale and Lurpak), British Gas, Queen and Virgin Galactic, and its award-winning campaigns include “Music Inspired” for Beck’s, “Newsroom Blog” for British Gas, “Milk Matters” for Cravendale, and “Food Beats” for Lurpak.

Outside Line will be integrated into the Saatchi & Saatchi Worldwide network, working alongside the Saatchi & Saatchi London office and further improving the agency’s ability to deliver highly creative and effective multi-channel digital output at a faster, more efficient and cost-effective rate. Ant Cauchi and Lloyd Salmons , in addition to their current roles as Outside Line’s co-founders, will take senior roles as digital directors at Saatchi & Saatchi London , and will be responsible for integrating existing business and growing digital revenue. They will work closely with Saatchi & Saatchi’s creative partners Kate Stanners and Paul Silburn , director of strategy Richard Huntington , as well as the director of integration Matt Groves , while reporting to Saatchi & Saatchi London’s CEO Magnus Djaba .

“Outside Line is a perfect cultural fit for Saatchi & Saatchi,” said Magnus Djaba, CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi London . “Both our agencies share an exciting vision. We’re driven to create interactive social currency that is world-class, both online and offline – work that people share online, tweet about, and talk about in pubs, playgrounds and by the coffee machine. We’re thrilled to be able to seize this opportunity to strengthen our digital core and further boost our service to clients in this crucial sector.”

France, Paris & UK, London

Related articles:

QVC acquires Oodle

QVC‘s wholly owned subsidiary California Voices is to acquire the assets of Oodle, Inc., the social commerce company that runs the Oodle Marketplace application on Facebook. The acquisition is expected to close by December 31, 2012. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Oodle has raised $23 million in funding.

“The QVC shopping experience is fundamentally social in nature,” said Claire Watts, QVC U.S. CEO.  “With this acquisition, we can fuel our evolving social commerce experience.  Oodle brings a great team that shares our values and passion for creating a rich customer experience.”

See, CEO and co-founder of Oodle, Craig Donato’s blog announcement here.

USA, West Chester, PA

MediaMath acquires mobile and video ad delivery platform Tap.Me

mediamathMediaMath, a digital media-buying platform, has acquired mobile and video in-game ad platform Tap.Me.  The terms of the deal were not disclosed.  Tap.Me had raised in excess of $4M from investors including: Hyde Park Venture Partners, I2A Fund, Hyde Park Angels and Great Oaks Venture Capital.

“As marketers are increasingly turning their focus to mobile and video, Tap.Me has built technology that makes it easy for marketers to deliver their message in these environments,” said Joe Zawadzki, MediaMath CEO. “By adding their technology and brilliant engineering team, we’re building a better platform that gives advertisers the ability to buy across all digital marketing channels from one single platform.”

Tap.Me CEO Matt Spiegel joins MediaMath’s executive team as SVP and GM of Open, MediaMath’s business and technology environment for digital interoperability, and will oversee MediaMath’s operations in the Mid-West region.  The entire Tap.Me team will join MediaMath.

New York, NY & Chicago, IL

 

Yahoo! acquires video chat company OnTheAir

Reuters is reporting that, Yahoo! has acquired video chat company OnTheAir. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

A Yahoo! spokeswoman said that Yahoo! had not plans to offer OnTheAir’s existing product, which lets Web users host live video conversations and was launched in March.

This is the second acquisition for Yahoo’s mobile group since Marissa Mayer became CEO earlier this year. In October, Yahoo! acquired Stamped, a New York-based mobile startup that allows consumers to share information about favorite restaurants and music on their smartphones.

Mayer, a former Google Inc executive, has said that her top priority is to create a coherent mobile strategy for Yahoo! and that she intends for at least half of the company’s technical workforce to be working on mobile products.

See the announcement at OnTheAir’s website here.

USA, Sunnydale, CA

Related articles: